Columbus was a cruel 'tyrant', new documents show

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2006

MADRID(AFP) — Explorer Christopher Columbus was a cruel and greedy tyrant who ruled the first land he annexed in the New World with a brutal disregard for humanity, according to documents published.

The documents, discovered in 2005 at the Simancas Archives in Valladolid, northern Spain, quotes 23 contemporary witnesses to Columbus's brutality after he subjugated what is now the Dominican Republic in 1492.

They provide further evidence of the "hidden face" of the man lauded in the West as the so-called discoverer of America, according to Spanish historian Consuelo Varela.

She said the explorer "ruled the colony in a tyranical fashion" and demonstrated "great greed".

In one example, she said Columbus ordered that a woman have her tongue cut off and be...